Structures Repair Question

[noisy]

Exhibit A

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?i...to_nr=2&size=M

B747 D-ABYZ flying at Frankfurt in September. Nothing remarkable there.

Exhibit B

http://www.skyliner-aviation.de/photos/01dabyz.jpg

A picture of the same a/c which I remember seeing early on this year. (April / May?)

The question is; How badly damaged does an aircraft have to be before it is rendered permanently unairworthy? Exhibit B looks like a write off to my untrained eye.

[spannersatcx]

Exhibit B looks like a write off to my untrained eye.

Therein lies your answer!

[noisy]

I hope that I am correct in thinking that photo B was taken *before* photo A.
Am I mistaken? Has the a/c in question indeed been scrapped?

[GotTheTshirt]

The answer is financial - not technical

If the cost of the repair plus 10% exceeds the cost of a replacement aircraft then it is usually written off by the insurance companies.

However it may be that the aircraft remains are sold off by the insurance companies but may re-appear in the skies at a later date

[Mr @ Spotty M]

You will find aircraft was not a write off.
Aircraft was damaged in Feb 2004 and the picture of the aircraft in flight, was taken on September 21st 2004.

[noisy]

Thanks, that's what intruged me.
I wonder how they pulled that one off then? A whole fuselage section must have been replaced.

[IFixPlanes]

The Crash-Crew from Boeing stabilized Body and Tail-Section separately.
Then they replaced all Stringers, Frame and the Skin in the affected area.

Ingo

[noisy]

That is quite incredible! Isn't the 747 a modular design? I was assuming that they would replace a whole length of fuselage between two transport joints.